Drake: Paradigm shift needed in transportation policy

Drivers commute along I-10, Monday, March 30, 2015, in Houston. Houston's congestion got 4 percent worse in 2014, compared to 2013, according to a report released Tuesday by TomTom, the global traffic and mapping company. The company's fifth annual traffic index placed Houston outside the ten worst commutes in the U.S., but still paints a grim picture for drivers. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)

Photo: Cody Duty, Staff

When Houstonians think of mobility, we think of cars - too many cars, and wasted moments, minutes, hours and energy. We watch the roads fill up beyond the rush hour peak until they blur into one massive and never-ending traffic jam and ask: How did we get here? How did a city so wealthy with knowledge, innovation, diversity and ideas become the Capital of Congestion?

Perhaps it is the fear of change and what that change might look like that has kept us from pursuing all avenues available to us to mitigate our traffic woes. The Transportation Advocacy Group, formed in 2010 to advance the regional conversation about transportation and infrastructure solutions, believes that fear no longer has a home in Houston and that Houstonians are ready, willing and able to embrace fresh ideas on how we can get people out of traffic and on with life.

TAG is a coalition of businesses, nonprofit organizations, transportation experts and industry leaders united by a vision of improving mobility for all Houstonians through all modes of transportation. We were encouraged with Mayor Sylvester Turner's call for a "paradigm shift" in identifying mobility options, which he made at a recent Texas Department of Transportation Commission meeting.

"(W)e're seeing clear evidence that the transportation strategies that the Houston region has looked to in the past are increasingly inadequate to sustain regional growth," Turner told the commission, as he called for a strategy that emphasizes local-state collaboration and shifts the focus of transportation solutions to alleviating the number of vehicles on the region's roads. TAG supports Mayor Turner's approach to how people can experience moving around our great city, and hope we have reached a point where all ideas really are on the table about how to accomplish that paradigm shift.

Mayor Turner is challenging the system of maximum road expansion as the sole solution to our congestion, and while everyone will not agree on every detail of what a true regional mobility plan should encompass, what we have now is simply not working and getting worse by the day.

In our support of the mayor's stance, TAG is not merely cheerleading. With the input and support of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas Department of Transportation, Harris County Toll Road Authority, the Gulf Coast Rail District, Port of Houston Authority and others, we are developing a Master Mobility Plan for Houston that we're calling "MotionMAP." This plan is a visual presentation of our region's mobility needs. It is collaborative, comprehensive and not financially constrained, and it is the first of its kind in decades. Our MotionMAP is not limited by individual agencies' immediate plans but rather incorporates and integrates all modes of mobility into a master plan for the region. While our map will continue to evolve with the input of additional leaders and experts, we look forward to sharing the MotionMap at the mayor's State of Mobility address next week. We hope that our regional leaders will consider this plan as a starting point for placing Houston at the forefront of connectivity.

Houston is ready for Mayor Turner's leadership on mobility issues. We need new options and a recognition that our quality of life cannot be fixed with bigger and better roads alone. We are tired of spending countless hours in our vehicles, chugging through traffic - missing minutes, moments and memories.

Houston's next chapter is going to be exciting, and we offer our active support in making the mayor's vision for more effective mobility a reality.

Drake is chairman and French is executive director of the Transportation Advocacy Group.